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First off, thanks everyone for your kindness and help.
Second Hey. I'm not sure where to put this question as it's not totally armor specific but, how do I change the color of a metal tassel from silver to antique gold? Would rub n buff work? Should I prime it first? I thought the silver would be ok when I bought em but they look ugly and fresh out the box, compared to the older look of most of the rest of the armor. Any ideas? Thanks

you can antique the silver by boiling an egg, then removing the yolk and getting rid of it (eat it or what ever) then break the whites into pieces, put them and the silver into a ziplock bag over night. Should be nice and black by morning, then just remove what tarnish you want.

Hmm, the cheap way is to spray paint it with some metallic paint and then weather it with either ink or shoe polish. If you chose to go that way then primer would be a wise move.

Rub and buff though might work, and if you used it I don't think you'd need to primer the surface first.

Brown lacquer might work as well though.

Thanks, I have left over gold paint and some shoe polish lying around.

adonian said:

you can antique the silver by boiling an egg, then removing the yolk and getting rid of it (eat it or what ever) then break the whites into pieces, put them and the silver into a ziplock bag over night. Should be nice and black by morning, then just remove what tarnish you want.

Looking amazing! I love the detail, that's what really makes a set come alive. You should start a thread over on the Mercs to encourage all the other TN folk over there, we're kinda few and far between.

Looking amazing! I love the detail, that's what really makes a set come alive. You should start a thread over on the Mercs to encourage all the other TN folk over there, we're kinda few and far between.

I was just about to say the same thing! I'm from Kentucky and when I visit home, I would love to troop too.

Updates everyone!
I've been working on my soft parts and got quite a bit done.
First I've finished the tabards. The green floral kimono fabric that i had originally intended was sold out so I had to find
something else for the main fabric of the tabards. I found this skirt here, the sequined and embroidered panels would be perfect for my tabards.

I cut out the panels and added felt backing because I felt they were too flimsy

I had some silver tassels for the bottom that I spray painted gold and antiqued

This is the finished product
Front:
Back:
and on the kama:

I have also finished my vest, if you haven't read the thread i posted, I found a beautiful piece of leather, but didn't have enough to make my vest. I ordered another piece but it was a completely different color. After some wonderful advice from the people here, I used a design that worked with that.
Here is my vest front:
back:
side:
and here are some pictures of everything I have so far

I'm almost finished with my first belt no so I'll be posting that soon. Any comments or critique are welcome! Thanks in advance

The Kama looks amazing. I love the detail and fabric choice, it's really starting to take shape to your original drawing. If the armor looks half as good as the soft goods do so far you will have an amazing and super detailed mando! Very impressive.

Just wondering if you have seen the other threads on female mando armor, one idea was to use a female mannequin torso which are like $10 on ebay and cut it out to give you the foundations. Depending on the type you get, most plastic cements will stick to it, and because they are fairly firm, it may prevent sulptured work from falling off.

Just wondering if you have seen the other threads on female mando armor, one idea was to use a female mannequin torso which are like $10 on ebay and cut it out to give you the foundations. Depending on the type you get, most plastic cements will stick to it, and because they are fairly firm, it may prevent sulptured work from falling off.

But very impressive and thanks for sharing.

April

Thanks,
The mannequin is a good idea. I was going to do wonderflex but I'm so leary of using bondo or resin as I don't really have a place to work with it. Do you have to smooth the surface at all? You say they're firm but would re-enforcing the inside of the mannquin plates with wonderflex help? Thanks again.

Thanks,
The mannequin is a good idea. I was going to do wonderflex but I'm so leary of using bondo or resin as I don't really have a place to work with it. Do you have to smooth the surface at all? You say they're firm but would re-enforcing the inside of the mannquin plates with wonderflex help? Thanks again.

As long as you are prepared to put the arm work in, bondo is a very good shaping tool, especially if you want natural shapes.

I made my krayt for my Krayt Dragon helmet completely out of bondo and in some ways, the way it laid out was really organic. However, at the same point, if you're clever, you can shape bondo just before it dries solid with an exacto knife, it really cuts down on sanding time.

Resin your fears are founded, but bondo? On a sheet of paper, mix it with a piece of plastic and away you go.

As long as you are prepared to put the arm work in, bondo is a very good shaping tool, especially if you want natural shapes.

I made my krayt for my Krayt Dragon helmet completely out of bondo and in some ways, the way it laid out was really organic. However, at the same point, if you're clever, you can shape bondo just before it dries solid with an exacto knife, it really cuts down on sanding time.

Resin your fears are founded, but bondo? On a sheet of paper, mix it with a piece of plastic and away you go.

Hee! Thank you very much. That alieviates a great deal of my fears about bondo. I'll probably still use the putty because I'm much more comfortable sculpting than carving, but I feel better about using it for the thigh and shin armor